The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA, RCRA-HSA) set standards for waste disposal.
I worked for Steve Weil, the EPA Branch Chief that wrote the implementing regulations (40 CFR 260 et seq.) Industry fought the regulations tooth and nail. I had a front row seat.
Now things are different. Industry eagerly awaits the second edition of Emma Popek's
In every case that I am aware of, smart implementation of the regulations reduced production costs and improved profitability (over the long term). Sometimes there were capital costs that reduced short term profitability, but ultimately the ideas in RCRA were smart and very cost effective. Legislators should take note of this. RCRA was very good for business, but it is not the kind of law that the current crop of legislators would recognize as business friendly. That is OK, they are not the kind of legislators that I recognize as intelligent.
In agriculture, where many waste streams were exempted, the operating companies declined to implement potentially very profitable resource recovery and pollution prevention. Many of these companies have since been sold to the Chinese.(Murphy Family Farms bought Brown, Smithfield bought Murphy. The Chinese bought Smithfield.)
My experience in this field makes me think that most captains of commerce did not get rich by being smart, but by being greedy bullies. (For all of "The Art of War", the Chinese excel at being bullies. Look at their cross bows from the Warring States Period. The Chinese hog facilities had more problems than Murphy's. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/29/dead-pigs-china-water-supply) I toured ag facilities, and I know the conditions, and what the people were paid. The owners and managers were not fair to their employees or the communities. These ag facilities were owned and managed by folks who were out for every dollar they could grab. these owners and managers dumped their costs onto others.
Along this line, and with Piketty's analysis, I would point to the rich and wealthy as responsible for; (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/15/human-impacts-danger_n_6480782.html?utm_hp_ref=green ) and (http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6219/1255641) and only now have we gotten to farm waste regulated as solid waste - (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/15/human-impacts-danger_n_6480782.html?utm_hp_ref=green)
In contrast, after RCRA was passed, Bechtel M and M put some real effort into achieving full compliance with RCRA, and thereby dropped the cost of operating their M and M Lab. Later, I was working on a national priority list (NPL- CERCLA) site, and our subcontractor analytical lab went through an agonizing conversion to microanalytical techniques mostly driven by the waste minimization and pollution prevention requirements in RCRA-HSA. However, the lab's profit margins doubled, so in a matter of months, it had recovered the capital expense. Thus, I know that a smart, highly-principled company can treat its employees well and make better profits, than a dumb and greedy company. The problem is that there are very few smart and highly principled companies based in the US today. The company on the NPL site was a dumb, greedy company that is gone. Unfortunately, smart and principled companies such as Bechtel and Kaiser are going to suffer from AGW just like the dumb, greedy companies. Riley Bechtel is nice guy, and he has billions of dollars, but he does not know anything about growing food.
Food in every 2-week period between now and the end of the world is always the bottom line. Filling a cave with dry food is not the answer. You cannot put food for all of your descendants for a thousand years in a cave. For one thing they will eat it up long before the end of the world - you are not going to be there to ration it out.
Now really, how much importance do you think that I attach to the comments that I do not spin as pretty as some? I am more likely to be worrying about how much liquid water has accumulated in the GIS. (http://www.skepticalscience.com/Greenland-ice-sheet-stores-liquid-water-year-round_NSF.html ) I do not like the comments because the comments indicate that those spinners are NOT THINKING! I want spinners to think.
Spinning is boring. You might as well think while you spin. And, you might as well spin as fast as possible.
I worked for Steve Weil, the EPA Branch Chief that wrote the implementing regulations (40 CFR 260 et seq.) Industry fought the regulations tooth and nail. I had a front row seat.
Now things are different. Industry eagerly awaits the second edition of Emma Popek's
Sampling & Analysis of Environmental Chemical Pollutants, A Complete Guide, due to be published in 2016.
In every case that I am aware of, smart implementation of the regulations reduced production costs and improved profitability (over the long term). Sometimes there were capital costs that reduced short term profitability, but ultimately the ideas in RCRA were smart and very cost effective. Legislators should take note of this. RCRA was very good for business, but it is not the kind of law that the current crop of legislators would recognize as business friendly. That is OK, they are not the kind of legislators that I recognize as intelligent.
In agriculture, where many waste streams were exempted, the operating companies declined to implement potentially very profitable resource recovery and pollution prevention. Many of these companies have since been sold to the Chinese.(Murphy Family Farms bought Brown, Smithfield bought Murphy. The Chinese bought Smithfield.)
My experience in this field makes me think that most captains of commerce did not get rich by being smart, but by being greedy bullies. (For all of "The Art of War", the Chinese excel at being bullies. Look at their cross bows from the Warring States Period. The Chinese hog facilities had more problems than Murphy's. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/29/dead-pigs-china-water-supply) I toured ag facilities, and I know the conditions, and what the people were paid. The owners and managers were not fair to their employees or the communities. These ag facilities were owned and managed by folks who were out for every dollar they could grab. these owners and managers dumped their costs onto others.
Along this line, and with Piketty's analysis, I would point to the rich and wealthy as responsible for; (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/15/human-impacts-danger_n_6480782.html?utm_hp_ref=green ) and (http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6219/1255641) and only now have we gotten to farm waste regulated as solid waste - (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/15/human-impacts-danger_n_6480782.html?utm_hp_ref=green)
In contrast, after RCRA was passed, Bechtel M and M put some real effort into achieving full compliance with RCRA, and thereby dropped the cost of operating their M and M Lab. Later, I was working on a national priority list (NPL- CERCLA) site, and our subcontractor analytical lab went through an agonizing conversion to microanalytical techniques mostly driven by the waste minimization and pollution prevention requirements in RCRA-HSA. However, the lab's profit margins doubled, so in a matter of months, it had recovered the capital expense. Thus, I know that a smart, highly-principled company can treat its employees well and make better profits, than a dumb and greedy company. The problem is that there are very few smart and highly principled companies based in the US today. The company on the NPL site was a dumb, greedy company that is gone. Unfortunately, smart and principled companies such as Bechtel and Kaiser are going to suffer from AGW just like the dumb, greedy companies. Riley Bechtel is nice guy, and he has billions of dollars, but he does not know anything about growing food.
Food in every 2-week period between now and the end of the world is always the bottom line. Filling a cave with dry food is not the answer. You cannot put food for all of your descendants for a thousand years in a cave. For one thing they will eat it up long before the end of the world - you are not going to be there to ration it out.
Now really, how much importance do you think that I attach to the comments that I do not spin as pretty as some? I am more likely to be worrying about how much liquid water has accumulated in the GIS. (http://www.skepticalscience.com/Greenland-ice-sheet-stores-liquid-water-year-round_NSF.html ) I do not like the comments because the comments indicate that those spinners are NOT THINKING! I want spinners to think.
Spinning is boring. You might as well think while you spin. And, you might as well spin as fast as possible.
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